Noam Arzt
See the following -
New Report: Top Challenges Facing HHS Includes Harnessing Data
In November 2019 the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a new report, Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing HHS. Divided into six major sections, this report reviews the OIG's observations with respect to financial integrity of HHS programs, value and quality, protecting the health and safety of beneficiaries as well as the public at large, harnessing data to achieve these goals, and working across government. The fifth challenge, "Harnessing Data To Improve Health and Well-Being of Individuals," is particularly foundational. Read More »
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ONC HITAC Public Health Data Systems Task Force Releases Recommendations
On November 10, 2022 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) accepted and approved the recommendations of its ad hoc Public Health Data Systems Task Force. As discussed in an earlier post, the Task Force has been meeting since August 2022 and was charged with examining how improvements might be made in ONC certification rules for criteria related to public health data submission. In addition, and perhaps for the first time, the task force was also charged with developing recommendations related to the public health side of the equation: how public health data systems and/or standards might improve to ensure a smoother flow of information with clinical care. Read More »
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ONC Releases Final Rule on Interoperability: How Might it Affect Public Health?
On March 9, 2020 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released its final rule on the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. Referred to by some people as the "Information Blocking Rule," since this is the primary topic, the document actually covers a host of other issues related to interoperability driven primarily by requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act. In addition to the final rule itself you can read the ONC press release, a comparison between the proposed and final rules, and lots of other resources.
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Some Barriers and Challenges to the CDC's Data Modernization Initiative
As we have discussed in earlier posts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) focused on improving the data management capacity of public health in the United States. The major focus of this initiative is on investments in both people as well as systems and data to improve public health response. Though Congress has appropriated a significant amount of funding for Federal and state, territorial, local, and tribal (STLT) public health agencies, there are some sizable barriers and challenges to seeing the vision for DMI come to fruition:
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Two New Federal Reports Released That Have Major Public Health Impacts
Two new Federal reports were recently released that have a public health impact. First, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released its 2022 Report to Congress: Update on Access, Exchange, and Use of Electronic Health Information. This report covers the current state of adoption of health information technology and access to electronic health information guided largely by the requirements of the 2016 21st Century Cures Act. The report observes that, “Although tremendous progress has been made with EHRs that capture and support the use of health information about individuals, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in health IT systems that support capturing and using population data. The challenges exposed during the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic pinpointed the importance of health IT to monitor population health regarding public health surveillance of testing, diagnosis, and vaccine distribution.”
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VistA is Going Places, and Also Staying Put
The Veterans Health Administration's hospital software, VistA, is a computing legend. Few pieces of software have become the subject of a popular book (Best Care Anywhere), won repeated awards for their usability, or been credited with a 180-degree turn-around in an organization's quality. But VistA is getting long in the tooth, and many--including now the VA itself--are questioning whether it's time for something new.The speculations aren't just about VistA. They extend to all health care software of that generation, including the industry's leading electroinc health record (EHR) system--Epic--and the venerable Intermountain Healthcare.
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30th VistA Community Meeting
The VistA community is holding its 30th VistA Community Meeting at the UC Davis Sacramento Campus January 16-18. The meeting is going to be addressed by a wide range of speakers, from current and former top officials of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Indian Health Service (IHS), to leading innovators for the Vista and RPMS EHRs. The goal of these meetings is to create a collaborative conference where VistA Community can network and collaborate, i.e., to share ideas and work, with the objective of moving VistA & the VistA community forward. UC Davis School of Medicine, is providing the facilities for the meeting.
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31st VistA Community Meeting
The VistA community is holding its 31st VistA Community Meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The meeting is going to be addressed by a wide range of speakers, from current and former top officials of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to leading innovators for the Vista and RPMS EHRs. The goal of these meetings is to create a collaborative conference where VistA Community can network and collaborate, i.e., to share ideas and work, with the objective of moving VistA & the VistA community forward.
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2019 CSTE Annual Conference
The CSTE Annual Conference connects more than 1,700 public health epidemiologists from across the country and will include workshops, plenary sessions with leaders in the field of public health, oral breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, and poster presentations. Conference attendees meet and share their expertise in surveillance and epidemiology as well as best practices in a broad range of areas including informatics, infectious diseases, substance use, immunizations, environmental health, occupational health, chronic disease, injury control, and maternal and child health.
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